Software options for cannabis cultivators & growers

Key Takeaways:

Make sure to know what you need and shop around before signing a contract

Cannabis-specific software options for cannabis cultivators & growers

Successfully growing legal cannabis can be difficult, and we already wrote about how data can help your plants and business thrive. In this article, we focus on the different software packages that are designed for cannabis cultivators. There are 3 main types of software options for growers:

Regulated seed-to-sale

Unregulated seed-to-sale & enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Grow journals

Regulated seed-to-sale cannabis software

Almost every state in the US, and country outside the US, requires some form of tracking via a seed-to-sale or track-and-trace software. These governments sign contracts with a single software company to provide solutions to cannabis growers in their region and then feed all that data to a central regulatory agency.

In short, regulated seed-to-sale software is required for all licensed cannabis growers in that state or region. Here are the required seed-to-sale softwares in the United States:

Metrc

Metrc was created in 2013 by Franwell, a supply chain technology company with a large footprint in many industries, for the initial cannabis rollout in Colorado. Since then it has grown extensively and is currently the system of record for:

Includes more comprehensive solutions such as POS for vertically integrated companies

Cons:

No external API for 3rd party integrations

User interface can be confusing for some operators

Leaf Data Systems (MJ Freeway)

Leaf Data Systems is a subsidiary company of MJ Freeway that is positioned specifically for government regulators. MJ Freeway was founded in 2010 by a group of technology and business professionals. Leaf Data is currently the system of record for:

Troubled rollout in Nevada (lost contract to Metrc) as well as in Washington State

Other seed-to-sale & ERP cannabis software

There are many more software packages beyond the three above that have been licensed by state regulators. Sometimes these companies call themselves seed-to-sale and other times they refer to themselves as enterprise resource planning (ERP) softwares.

The good news about business-oriented cannabis software solutions is that they are focused on your needs as a cultivator instead of the requirements of the state. And they usually integrated with the state’s required option so you don’t have to do double data entry.

Here are some options for unregulated seed-to-sale or ERP softwares for cannabis growers.

MJ Freeway

MJ Freeway is one of the largest cannabis software companies and is often in the news. They provide dedicated software and consulting solutions for cannabis cultivators as well as every other vertical in the cannabis industry.